Carbon fiber-reinforced carbon materials, also referred to as carbon-carbon (C—C) materials, are composite materials that generally include carbon fibers reinforced in a matrix of carbon material. The C—C composite materials are found in many rigorous, high temperature applications. For example, the aerospace industry is known to employ C—C composite materials for manufacturing different aircraft structural components. Example applications include rocket nozzles, nose cones, and friction materials for commercial and military aircraft such as, e.g., brake friction materials.
In some examples, C—C composites are manufactured using either woven or non-woven carbon fibers. The carbon fiber may be arranged to define a shape of a resulting structural component and, as such, may be referred to as a preform. The preform may undergo different processing steps to increase the carbon content and density of the preform to transform the preform into a C—C composite component. For example, carbon may be added to the preform using one or more pitch densification processes. In general, a pitch densification process operates to impregnate the carbon fiber preform with pitch that is subsequently cooled and solidified to produce a dense, high carbon content C—C component.
Different pitch densification processes often involve different chemical and mechanical force loading. Different carbon fiber preforms may also exhibit different chemical and mechanical properties, for example, due to different material morphologies, different manufacturing techniques, or the manufacturing tolerances inherent in most fabrication processes. If a pitch densification process selected for a specific carbon fiber preform is too aggressive, the preform may be damaged during the pitch densification process. In applications where the performance and quality of C—C components take precedence, a damaged preform may generally be of little use and may be discarded.